▪ I. slave, n.1 (and a.)
(sleɪv)
Forms: α. 4–6 sclaue, 5 sclave, 6 sklaw, sklaue, sklave, Sc. sclayff. β. 6 Sc. slawe, slaif, 6–7 slaue, 6– slave.
[ad. OF. esclave (also mod.F.), sometimes fem. corresponding to the masc. esclaf, esclas (pl. esclaz, esclauz, esclos, etc.), = Prov. esclau masc., esclava fem., Sp. esclavo, -va, Pg. escravo, -va, It. schiavo, -va, med.L. sclavus, sclava, identical with the racial name Sclavus (see Slav), the Slavonic population in parts of central Europe having been reduced to a servile condition by conquest; the transferred sense is clearly evidenced in documents of the 9th century.
The form with initial scl- is also represented by older G. schlav(e, sclav(e, G. sklave. In English the reduction of scl- to sl- is normal, and the other Teut. languages show corresponding forms, as WFris. slaef, NFris. slaaw, MDu. slave, slaef (Du. slaaf), MLG. and LG. slave (hence Da. and Norw. slave), older G. slaf(e, Sw. slaf).
The history of the words representing slave and Slav in late Gr., med.L., and G., is very fully traced in Grimm's Deutsches Wörterbuch s.v. Sklave.]
I. 1. a. One who is the property of, and entirely subject to, another person, whether by capture, purchase, or birth; a servant completely divested of freedom and personal rights.
| α c 1290 S. Eng. Leg. I. 106 He was sone i-nome, Ase a sclaue forth i-lad and i-don in prisone. c 1374 Chaucer Troylus iii. 391, I wol þe serue Right as þi sclaue. 1513 Douglas æneid ix. v. 114 My fader..Twelf chosin matronis sall ȝou geif all fre, To be ȝour sclavis in captiuite. a 1533 Ld. Berners Huon xlviii. 161 It is a sclaue, a crysten woman, whom we bought at Damiet. 1590 Spenser F.Q. ii. vii. 33, I..rather choose..to be Lord of those that riches haue, Then them to haue my selfe, and be their seruile sclaue. |
| β 1538 Elyot Dict., Seruiliter, lyke a bondman or slaue. 1562 Winȝet Wks. (S.T.S.) I. 50 As thai war slawes, presoneris, and captiues in a raip. 1568 Grafton Chron. II. 2 Before the commyng of the sayde William there were no slaues or bondmen. 1610 Shakes. Temp. i. ii. 308 Wee'll visit Caliban, my slaue, who neuer Yeelds vs kinde answere. 1667 Milton P.L. xii. 167 Of guests he makes them slaves Inhospitably. 1717 Lady M. W. Montagu Lett. II. xlvi. 35 You will expect I should say something..of the slaves. 1764 Goldsm. Trav. 388 The wealth..Pillag'd from slaves to purchase slaves at home. 1809–10 Coleridge Friend (1865) 73 They were preparing us to give up..the children of free ancestors to become slaves, and the fathers of slaves! 1878 H. M. Stanley Dark Cont. (1889) 204 The Arabs bring cloth, beads, and wire, to buy ivory and slaves. |
b. Used as a term of
contempt. Now
arch.| 1537 St. Papers Hen. VIII (1834) II. 448 Emonges 200 of them [galloglasses] shalbe skaunt 8{supt}{suph} that are gentilmen.., and all the residue sklawes. c 1560 Durham Deposit. (Surtees) 64 Thou art a slave and a knave to fynd fault with me. 1607 Shakes. Cor. i. vi. 39 Where is that Slaue Which told me they had beate you to your Trenches? 1780 Cowper Progr. Error 615 Though the deist rave, And atheist, if earth bear so base a slave. 1819 Scott Ivanhoe xxii, ‘And what is to be my surety?’ said the Jew... ‘The word of the Norman noble, thou pawnbroking slave’, answered Front-de-Bœuf. |
| transf. 1607 Shakes. Timon iv. iii. 33 This yellow Slaue [sc. gold] Will knit and breake Religions. |
† c. In less serious use: Rascal; fellow.
Obs.| 1592 R. D. Hypnerotomachia 87 Dyvers persons wondering at the force of such a little slave [Cupid]. 1601 Sir W. Cornwallis Ess. xv, I come now from discoursing with an Husbandman—an excellent stiffe slave. 1607 Shakes. Cor. iv. v. 181 Oh Slaues, I can tell you Newes, News you Rascals. |
d. Slave of the Lamp, in the story of Aladdin in the
Arabian Nights: a genie summoned by rubbing a magic lamp and bound to perform the wishes of the lamp's possessor; hence, allusively, one who performs swift miracles, or one who is under an inescapable obligation.
| c 1840 Lady Wilton Art of Needlework xv. 238 The accommodations provided for the king..on this occasion [sc. The Field of Cloth of Gold] were more than magnificent; a vast and splendid edifice that seemed..to rise almost with the celerity of that prepared by the slaves of the lamp. 1841 Dickens Let. 1 July (1969) II. 319, I am bound to be..constant to my plans. I am a poor Slave of the Lamp. 1853 C. Brontë Villette II. xxi. 90, I almost looked to see if a huge, dark, cloudy hand—that of the Slave of the Lamp—were not..guarding its wondrous treasure. 1897 Kipling Stalky (1899) 38 (title) Slaves of the Lamp. 1953 E. Coxhead Midlanders v. 120 Their working life was a deadening one. They were as near as possible machines themselves, slaves of the implacable lamp. 1959 Encounter Aug. 67/2 The physical scientist..is the magician. He is the contemporary equivalent of that old friend of our children, the Slave of the Lamp. Which means that he is very much an underling: he makes his magic at the command of his masters. |
2. a. transf. One who submits in a servile manner to the authority or dictation of another or others; a submissive or devoted servant.
| 1521 Bradshaw's St. Werburge (1887) 203 Be nowe beniuolent, whan I shall on the call, Vnto thy slaue. 1596 Shakes. Tam. Shr. i. i. 224 Let me be a slaue, t' atchieue that maide. 1647 Cowley Mistr., The Thraldom iv, I am thy slave then; let me know, Hard Master, the great task I have to do. a 1700 Evelyn Diary 31 Oct. 1685, He..is of nature cruel and a slave of the Court. 1794 Mrs. Radcliffe Myst. Udolpho i, I'd be her slave no longer. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. ii. I. 163 Oliver, the head of a party, and consequently, to a great extent, the slave of a party. 1880 ‘Ouida’ Moths I. 2 She had her adorers and slaves grouped about her. |
b. fig. One who is completely under the domination
of, or subject
to, a specified influence.
| 1559 Mirr. Mag., Jack Cade xxiv, Therefore Baldwin warne men folow reason, Subdue theyr wylles, and be not Fortunes slaues. 1596 Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scotl. I. 240 Sergius, a mounk and sclaue of the Nestorian and Heretical Impietie. 1602 Shakes. Ham. iii. ii. 77 Giue me that man That is not Passions Slaue. 1620 T. Granger Div. Logike 102 He is the slaue of muddy Mammon. 1684 Scanderbeg Rediv. iii. 37 Well knowing that the Tartars are a People that use not to be very much slaves to their words. 1746 Francis tr. Horace, Epist. i. i. 53 The Slave to Envy, Anger, Wine or Love. 1780 Mirror No. 87, The slaves of a weak, a childish, or a gloomy superstition. 1848 Dickens Dombey xxvi, I am the slave of remorse. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) III. 174 [He] is the slave of his inveterate party prejudices. |
| transf. 1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, v. iv. 81 But thought's the slaue of Life, and Life, Times foole. 1602 ― Ham. iii. ii. 198 Purpose is but the slaue to Memorie. 1817 Shelley Rev. Islam vi. xvii, O War! of hate and pain Thou loathed slave. |
3. One whose condition in respect of toil is comparable to that of a slave.
| 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) II. 121 The women, therefore, of these countries, are the greatest slaves upon earth. 1801 Mrs. Sherwood in Life (1847) xii. 214 We called the slave-of-all-work to inquire the cause of all this tintamara. 1889 G. B. Shaw in Fabian Ess. 192 The white slaves of the sweater. |
4. Ent. An ant captured by, and made to serve, ants of another species.
| 1817 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. (1818) II. 75 Certain ants are affirmed to sally forth..for the singular purpose of procuring slaves to employ in their domestic business. 1859 Darwin Orig. Species vii. (1860) 220, I opened fourteen nests of F. sanguinea, and found a few slaves in all. 1879 Lubbock Sci. Lect. iii. 77 If the colony changes the situation of its nest, the masters are all carried by the slaves to the new one. |
5. Applied to a thing.
a. Naut. = slave jib, sense 10 below.
| 1934 Yachting Monthly LVII. 119/2 These craft [sc. Bristol Channel pilot cutters], when in the pilot service, carried a heavy mainsail roped up the leech, a heavy staysail with two sets of reef points, and a working jib, generally known as ‘the slave’. 1970 E. J. March Inshore Craft II. vii. 263 A ‘slave’ slightly larger [than the storm jib] and so called because it was almost permanently set. |
b. A slave device (see sense 6 c below).
| 1940 F. Hope-Jones Electr. Timekeeping (1942) xvi. 156 Using a remontoire impulse as a synchronizing signal to control a Graham dead-beat escapement clock employed as a slave. 1965 Jrnl. Scientific Instruments XLII. 444/2 The whole seconds of the slave and chronometer can be matched regardless of the position of synchronization. 1969 J. J. Sparkes Transistor Switching v. 129 Which flip-flop is called the master and which the slave is quite arbitrary. 1975 D. Pitts Target Manhattan (1976) xxix. 126 ‘The first move is to get hold of that master computer.’.. ‘That would stop the explosion?’ ‘It will if they haven't given final instructions to the slave.’ |
II. attrib. and
Comb. 6. a. Appositive, as
slave-boy,
slave-girl,
slave-labourer,
slave-martyr,
slave-pander,
slave-soldier,
slave-subject,
slave-wife,
slave woman, etc.
| 1607 Tourneur Rev. Trag. ii. iv, Where's this slave-pander now? 1711 Shaftesbury Charac. (1737) I. 105 'Twas difficult to apprehend..what publick [subsisted] between an absolute prince and his slave-subjects. 1813 Shelley Q. Mab v. 206 The slave-soldier lends His arm to murderous deeds. 1837 H. Martineau Soc. Amer. III. 110 Slave wives and mothers. 1839 Miss Maitland Lett. Madras (1843) 278 Four wives and seven slave-girls were burnt with him. 1848 Mill Pol. Econ. I. ii. v. 294 No slave-labourers are worse fed, clothed, or lodged, than the free peasantry of Ireland. 1897 M. Kingsley Trav. W. Afr. iii. 70, I have myself seen..slave women who had suffered for theft. 1900 Dublin Rev. July 205 The honour that was paid to the slave-martyrs. 1920 J. Masefield Enslaved 13 They took my lady with them as a slave-girl to be sold. 1957 H. Roosenburg Walls came tumbling Down iv. 79 The Nazis had used Russian and Polish POWs as slave labourers. 1962 H. R. Loyn Anglo-Saxon England i. 34 From this district [of Yorkshire] came the slave-boys seen and questioned by Pope Gregory in the Roman slave-market. 1977 P. Johnson Enemies of Society ii. 15 We find the great fourth-century senator, Symmachus.., asking a Danubian official to buy him twenty slave-boys, ‘because on the frontier it is easy to find slaves and the price is usually tolerable’. 1980 F. Warner Light Shadows ii. 10, I gave the Emperor that slave-girl, Acte. |
b. Used predicatively as
adj.| a 1576 Pilkington Wks. (Parker Soc.) 225, I will..make thee more vile and slave..than any people round about thee. 1850 Carlyle Latter-d. Pamph. i. (c 1900) 35 Algiers, Brazil or Dahomey hold nothing in them so authentically slave as you are. |
c. techn. Used to denote a subsidiary device,
esp. one which is controlled by, or which follows accurately the movements of, another device.
| 1904 D. Gill in Rep. H.M. Astronomer at Cape of Good Hope for 1903 7 The Clock consists of two separate instruments:—(a) A pendulum... (b) The ‘slave-clock’ with a wheel train and dead-beat escapement, the pendulum of which has a period of vibration slightly shorter than one second. 1930 Engineering 11 Apr. 466/2 A micrometer..bearing against a ‘slave’ micrometer introduced to allow of the main one being set to a zero reading anywhere over a considerable range. 1938 Jrnl. R. Aeronaut. Soc. XLII. 907 This is a double acting liquid pressure remote control system having a number of slave cylinder units fed from a common source of pressure... The slave cylinders are arranged to effect a number of operations in a predetermined sequence when pressure is fed through one pipe line. 1945 Electronics Nov. 94/1 (caption) Master and slave stations transmit synchronized pulses, and the difference in their times of arrival determines the position of the ship or aircraft. 1963 Wall St. Jrnl. 13 Feb. 20/1 The ‘slave’ locomotive..is being tested... The ‘slave’ would ride in the middle of a train perhaps 200 cars long; automatic sensing devices would keep it pulling the back end of such a train in rhythm with the manned master locomotive up front. 1972 Amat. Photographer 12 Jan. 41/1 (caption) A slave flash... This gun can be clipped anywhere and will trigger its own bulb, being actuated by the flash from another bulb gun. 1976 Pract. Householder Nov. (Heating Suppl.) 2/1 A houseful of remote slave units (electronic, of course) and a central control system is no longer eccentric gadgetry. 1977 Grimsby Even. Tel. 27 May 3/9 (Advt.), 100 watt slave amplifier, {pstlg}40. 1980 Keene & Haynes Spyship xiii. 152 With this information, beamed off a slave satellite.., set and drift can be measured. |
7. a. Attrib. in various senses, as
slave-bargain,
slave-bill,
slave-blood,
slave-hunt,
slave-labour,
slave-master,
slave song,
slave work, etc.
| 1808 E. Sleath Bristol Heiress III. 283 You have..found a respectable purchaser for your plantations, and have disposed of your *slave-bargain on your own terms? |
| 1791 Cowper Let. to Lady Hesketh 27 May, As for politics, I reck not, having no room in my head for any thing but the *Slave-bill. |
| 1612 Chapman Rev. Bussy d'Ambois iv. iii, He had bought his bands out With their *slave bloods! |
| 1864 Webster, *Slave-hunt, 1. A search after persons to make slaves of. Barth. 2. A search after fugitive slaves. 1890 Spectator 3 May, The leaders of the slave-hunts, the Arab desperadoes. |
| 1820 Deb. Congr. U.S. 9 Feb. (1855) 1213 Free labor and *slave labor cannot be employed together. 1842 Dickens Amer. Notes II. i. 16 The system of employing a great amount of slave labour in forcing crops. a 1859 Voice from South 19 (Bartlett), I hear you avowing that slave labor shall not come in competition with free labor. 1871 Kingsley At Last xvi, Exclusive sugar cultivation had put a premium on unskilled slave-labour. |
| 1822 Sunday Times 20 Oct. 1/4 The Continental Monarchs were but so many *slave-masters. 1869 Mill Subj. Women iii. 142 Servitude, except when it actually brutalizes, though corrupting to both, is less so to the slaves than to the slave-masters. 1924 W. Deeping Three Rooms ii. 16 His manner towards women was Oriental, playfully and tolerantly casual, but behind it was the thick hand of the slave-master. 1971 Black Scholar June 11/1 We were so abhorrent to our slavemasters that legal barriers were instituted to prevent the natural process of assimilation. |
| 1894 H. H. Gardener Unofficial Patriot 2 The direct results of having been born to *slave-ownership. |
| 1860 Pusey Min. Proph. 135 The inducement to *slave-piracy among the Cilicians. |
| 1884 Pall Mall G. 25 Apr. 2/1 On the western side of Africa there are no *slave raids. |
| 1881 Harper's Mag. May 818/2 The plaintive *slave songs..have won popularity wherever the English language is spoken. 1939 Jrnl. Negro Educ. VIII. 641/2 The slave song was an awesome prophecy, rooted in the knowledge of what was going on and of human nature, and not in mystical lore. 1973 Advocate-News (Barbados) 19 Feb. 4/4 He sang an old slave song his grandmother had taught him. |
| 1852 J. M. Ludlow Hist. U.S. 195 The tendency of the *slave-system being to divide the white population. |
| 1796 H. Hunter tr. St.-Pierre's Stud. Nat. (1799) III. 651 The violent remonstrances of our traders in favour of the inhuman *slave-traffic. |
| 1838 Whittier Farew. of Virginia Slave Mother 3 Where the *slave-whip ceaseless swings. |
| 1916 D. H. Lawrence Twilight in Italy 303 Life is now a matter of selling oneself to *slave-work. 1926 J. Pedersen Israel, its Life & Culture I. ii. 381 They..set him to the ignominious slave-work of grinding in the prison house. |
b. With words denoting places, buildings, etc., in some way connected with slaves or slavery, as
slave-barge,
slave block,
slave-cabin,
slave camp,
slave-country,
slave house,
slave pen,
slave pit,
slave quarter, etc.
| 1865 J. H. Ingraham Pillar of Fire (1872) 218 A *slave-barge passed down the Nile. |
| 1907 Kipling Actions & Reactions (1909) 188 The Hajji had often gloatingly appraised his skill..at five thousand rupees upon any *slave block. 1966 Keystone Folklore Q. XI. 74 She was only eight when she was sold on the slave block. |
| 1878 Morley Diderot II. 228 Black Toussaint Louverture in his *slave-cabin at Hayti. |
| 1953 K. Tennant Joyful Condemned xxii. 208 Men all over the world making weary marches to prison camps and *slave camps. 1973 R. Dougall In & out of Box xi. 127 The great bulk of the work was carried out manually by wretched, scarecrow figures dressed in rags... They were gangs from the notorious Stalin slave camps in the Arctic. |
| 1845 Darwin Voy. round World (ed. 2) xxi. 499, I thank God, I shall never again visit a *slave-country. |
| 1939 J. Masefield Live & Kicking Ned 145 Inside the *slave-house. 1943 H. T. Kane Bayous of Louisiana iii. 256 A barn and a few slave houses are all that can be found today of the former grandeur of the Durands, among the trees. |
| 1890 Henty With Lee in Virginia 76 A warrant to search your *slave-huts..for a runaway negro. |
| 1855 Bailey The Mystic, etc. 70 The desert heart of *slave-land. |
| 1860 Pusey Min. Proph. 135 The great *slave-mart at Delos. |
| 1845 Coulter Adv. in Pacific ii. 15 One large kind of storehouse attracted my attention;..it was a *slave-pen. 1901 W. Churchill Crisis i. iv. 35 A score of miserable human beings waiting to be sold at auction. Mr. Lynch's slave pen had been disgorged that morning. 1951 E. M. Graham My Window looks down East x. 86 In the cellar they have a slavepen. |
| 1931 Times Lit. Suppl. 4 June 440/3 Characteristic..are the winding entrance gangways, a feature..in the..‘*slave pits’. 1959 J. D. Clark Prehist. Southern Africa xi. 302 These pits have been popularly referred to as ‘Slave pits’ suggesting that they were the places where slaves were confined on their journey from the interior to the coast. This explanation is, however, more fanciful than factual. 1982 Evening Post (Bristol) 19 Jan. 12 (Advt.), 2 further rooms and basement, with slave pit. |
| 1837 H. Martineau Society in America II. i. 49 The *slave-quarter is large. 1911 G. B. Shaw Getting Married Pref. 160 The people whose conception of marriage is a farm-yard or slave-quarter conception are always more or less in a panic lest the slightest relaxation of the marriage laws should utterly demoralize society. 1956 G. P. Kurath in A. F. C. Wallace Men & Cultures (1960) 152 The hot rhythms of jazz..have emerged from slave quarters..to respectable society. 1981 P. Mallory Killing Matter vii. 82, I bought some groceries..and, once inside my undistinguished slave-quarter, made myself a drink. |
| 1796 H. M. Williams Lett. on France IV. 177 (Jod.), The faithful historian of a *slave-ship. 1842 Longfellow Witnesses iii, There the black Slave-ship swims. |
| 1897 M. Kingsley W. Africa 219 The *slave villages..are away down the north face of the island. |
c. Consisting of slaves, as
slave-caravan,
slave-caste,
slave-class,
slave-coffle,
slave-drove.
| 1840 Macaulay Ess., Ranke's Hist. (1897) 558 The marts of the African slave-caravans. 1865 Atlantic Monthly June 752 The last slave-coffle that shall ever tread the streets of Richmond. 1872 Yeats Growth Comm. 348 The slave-droves of an African prince. 1895 C. S. Horne Story L.M.S. 95 Members of the poor slave-castes must not approach nearer than ninety paces to a Brahmin. 1935 Huxley & Haddon We Europeans ix. 279 A slave-class..of markedly different ethnic type from their masters. 1977 W. M. Spackman Armful of Warm Girl 108 No birthright Philadelphia Quaker ever bothered his head over their slave-class preoccupation with the safety of their unappetizing souls. |
8. Objective.
a. With agent-nouns, as
slave-auctioneer,
slave-broker,
slave-catcher,
slave-dealer, etc.
| 1861 Gen. P. Thompson Audi Alt. III. clxxviii. 216 Give up your sons to slaughter, that *slave-auctioneers may still handle female flesh. |
| 1893 Dublin Rev. April 295 The son of a *slave-broker in Cairo. |
| 1852 Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's C. ix. 77 Are you the man that will shelter a poor woman and child from *slave-catchers? |
| 1601 Holland Pliny II. 110 The root is..well known to these *slaue-coursers. |
| 1776 G. Sharp Law Liberty Title-p., Slave-holders and *slave-dealers. 1874 Green Short Hist. i. 17 ‘They are English, Angles!’ the slave-dealers answered. |
| 1856 Olmsted Slave States 196 The *slave employer..has no remedy but to solicit..a deduction from the price. |
| 1776 G. Sharp Law Retrib. Title-p., Tyrants, *Slave-holders, and Oppressors. 1861 Sat. Rev. 23 Nov. 525 An intention of alarming the slaveholders of the coast. 1973 Black World Oct. 68/2 Unable to live in the slave-holder's kingdom, Walker fled to Boston. 1982 English World-Wide III. i. 19 A majority of the planters attempted to surmount the moral conflict inherent in being a slave-holder. |
| 1889 Academy 24 Aug. 112/2 Our hero's capture by a band of ruthless *slavehunters. |
| 1861 J. G. Sheppard Fall Rome xiii. 628 Fortune-tellers, *slave-mongers, gladiators. |
| 1848 Thackeray Van. Fair xx, Her father was a German Jew—a *slave-owner they say. 1939 J. Masefield Live & Kicking Ned 71 A white slave who knew medicine might be worth double that to a slave-owner. 1957 V. W. Turner Schism & Continuity in Afr. Soc. vi. 193 The mechanisms which formerly maintained the norms governing the relations of slave-owners and slaves could no longer operate. |
| 1884 Pall Mall G. 20 Feb. 1 The *slave raider has extended his operations far and wide. 1946 Nature 2 Nov. 607/2 Slave-raiders were exhausting a wasting asset, the chief export of tropical Africa. |
| 1601 Holland Pliny I. 162 A merchant *slaue-seller. |
| 1854 Milman Lat. Chr. iii. v. (1864) II. 16 Barbarian or Jewish *slave-venders. |
b. With
pres. pples., as
slave-carrying,
slave-collecting,
slave-dealing,
slave-holding,
slave-making,
slave-owning, etc.
| 1799 Hull Advertiser 13 July 4/2 The *slave carrying ships were pestilential jails. |
| 1817 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. xvii. (1818) II. 88 Both species of the *slave-collecting ants. |
| Ibid. 75 None of the *slave-dealing ants appear to be natives of Britain. 1864 Q. Jrnl. Sci. Jan. 10 The slave-dealing king of Dahomey. |
| 1798 Deb. Congr. U.S. 29 June (1851) 2058 At present the *slaveholding parts of the State are burdened with the heaviest part of the State taxes. 1837 H. Martineau Society in Amer. II. 77 This brought in an accession of slave-holding settlers. 1959 D. K. Wilgus Anglo-Amer. Folksong Scholarship 353 White songs in the slave-holding areas. |
| 1735 Thomson Liberty i. 32 Extended in her hand the Cap, and Rod, Whose *Slave-inlarging touch gave double life. |
| a 1628 F. Grevil Life Sidney xv. (1652) 205 These *slave-making conjunctions betweene the Spaniard, and his Chaplaine. 1817 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. xvii. (1818) II. 81 Another of the slave-making ants. 1928 Slave-making [see dulosis]. 1944 J. S. Huxley On Living in Revolution 61 The raids of the slave-making ants are..a curious combination of predation and parasitism. 1977 Richards & Davies Imms' Gen. Textbk. Ent. (ed. 10) II. iii. 1243 Slave-making ants are confined to the northern hemisphere and are members of four genera only. |
| 1828 J. F. Cooper Notions of Americans II. xiii. 296 The confederation is nearly equally divided into *slave-owning, and what are called free states. 1852 J. M. Ludlow Hist. U.S. 195 A slave-owning oligarchy. 1934 E. O'Neill Days without End i. 34 They..had supplanted Him [sc. Almighty God] with the slave-owning State—the most grotesque god that ever came out of Asia! 1971 Black Scholar June 3/1 The human capital of the slave-owning class. |
c. With
vbl. ns., as
slave-catching,
slave-dealing,
slave-holding,
slave-hunting,
slave-raiding, etc.
| 1864 Webster, *Slave-catching, the business of searching out and arresting fugitive slaves. 1873 P. H. Colomb (title), Slave-catching in the Indian Ocean. |
| 1835 J. E. Alexander Sk. in Portugal ix. 212 Many of the governors have held office solely for the purpose of enriching themselves by *slave-dealing. 1845 Marg. Fuller Wom. 19th Cent. (1862) 25 Room for a monstrous display of slave-dealing and slave-keeping. |
| 1841 J. Sturge Let. 30 June in Visit to U.S. in 1841 (1842) 33 If *slave-holding were to be justified at all, the slave-trade must be also. 1863 Speke Discov. Nile p. xxvi, The whole system of slave-holding..is exceedingly strange. |
| 1863 W. Phillips Sp. v. 75 The pulpit preached *slave-hunting. |
| 1845 *Slave-keeping [see slave-dealing]. |
| 1933 A. N. Whitehead Adv. of Ideas iii. 34 Mediaeval wars were dissociated from *slave-raiding expeditions. |
| 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xvi. III. 715 The law which made *slavetrading felony. 1957 V. W. Turner Schism & Continuity in Afr. Soc. p. xx, The slave-trading and -raiding of the nineteenth century. |
9. a. With
pa. pples., as
slave-cultured,
slave-deserted,
slave-got,
slave-grown,
slave-peopled.
| 1763 Churchill Duellist i. Poems 1767 II. 11 Some slave-got Villain. 1788 Cowper Morning Dream 26 To a slave-cultur'd island we came. 1809–10 Shelley ‘Oh! take the pure gem’, etc., ii, Where patriotism..Plants Liberty's flag on the slave-peopled shore. 1817 ― Rev. Islam ix. x, Their many tyrants sitting desolately In slave-deserted halls. 1848 Mill Pol. Econ. iii. vi. §3 I. 571 Slave-grown will exchange for non-slave-grown commodities in a less ratio [etc.]. 1860 Gen. P. Thompson Audi Alt. III. cxli. 120 The supply of slave-grown cotton. |
b. Similative, as
slave-like.
| 1607 Shakes. Timon iv. iii. 205 This Slaue-like Habit. 1845 Ld. Campbell Chancellors lii. (1857) III. 19 He would have addressed her in the most fulsome and slave-like strain. 1896 Daily News 13 Apr. 3/1 A slave-like obedience. |
10. Special combs.:
slave ant = sense 4;
slave bangle,
bracelet orig. U.S.: formerly, a slave's identity bracelet worn on the wrist or ankle; now, a bangle of metal, glass, bone, etc., worn for ornament,
freq. above the elbow;
slave-captain, the captain of a slave-vessel;
Slave Coast, a part of the west coast of Africa (see
quot. 1875) from which slaves were exported;
slave-fork, a forked branch of a tree secured to the neck of a slave to prevent escape;
slave jib Naut. (see
quot.);
slave king Indian Hist., one of a dynasty founded by a former slave, Qutb uddin Aibak, which ruled the Delhi Sultanate from 1206 to 1290;
usu. pl.;
slave-maker, an ant belonging to a species that uses ants of a different species as slaves;
slave market, a market at which slaves are bought and sold; also
fig.,
esp. (
N. Amer. slang) an employment exchange;
slave morality [
tr. G.
sklaven-moral (Nietzsche,
Jenseits von Gut und Böse (1886) 231)], a morality characteristic of the weak, and rooted in resentment of the powerful, that exalts the lowly virtues of meekness, obedience, etc.;
slave-power, a power based upon, or recognizing, slavery as an institution;
slave state, one or other of the southern United States of America, in which slave-holding was legal;
slave-stick,
= slave-fork;
slave worker, in the war of 1939–45: a person put to enforced labour by the German Nazi regime,
esp. a foreigner deported to Germany for this purpose.
Slave-wood, given in various Dicts., etc., as a name for the Simaruba tree, is an error for
stave-wood.
| 1862 Chambers's Jrnl. 15 Feb. 97/2 Reaumur discovered how the ants of South America sally forth to kidnap hundreds of the black ‘*slave ants’. 1895 J. H. & A. Comstock Man. Study Insects 641 The Slave-ant, Formica subsericea..is usually a dark-brown or ash-colored ant with reddish legs. |
| 1923 U. L. Silberrad Lett. Jean Armiter ii. 33 A green-glass *slave bangle. 1931 N. Cunard Black Man & White Ladyship 4 The thick old Congo ivories she thinks, are slave bangles. 1975 D. Gray Ride on Tiger ii. 20 She wore..a silver slave bangle on her right arm. |
| 1934 Webster, *Slave bracelet. 1940 R. Chandler Farewell, My Lovely xxi. 164 An emerald..that..managed to look as phony as a dime-store slave bracelet. 1976 Botham & Donnelly Valentino xxii. 169 Her special gift for her husband—a platinum slave bracelet. |
| 1808 Clarkson African Slave-Trade I. 378 Norris had been formerly a *slave-captain, but had quitted the trade. |
| 1778 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 2) II. 1110/2 Benin,..in Africa, has..the *Slave Coast on the west. 1837 Penny Cycl. VII. 299/1 The most eastern districts [of the Gold Coast] are often distinguished by the name of the Slave Coast. 1875 Encycl. Brit. I. 269 The Slave Coast extends from the river Volta to the Calabar river. |
| 1883 Annandale Imperial Dict., *Slave-fork. 1898 Daily Telegr. 11 Apr. 4/7 Many poor wretches fighting in fetters or in slave-forks. |
| 1948 R. de Kerchove Internat. Maritime Dict. 685/2 *Slave jib, a term used by yachtsmen to denote a working jib, almost permanently set. |
| 1841 M. Elphinstone Hist. India II. vi. i. 1 (heading) *Slave kings. 1882 W. W. Hunter Indian Empire ix. 223 Kutab-ud-d{iacu}n had started life as a T{uacu}rk{iacu} slave, and several of his successors rose by valour or intrigue from the same low condition to the throne. His dynasty is accordingly known as that of the Slave Kings. 1958 O. Caroe Pathans i. 17 The slave-kings who followed them in Delhi were, every one, a Turk. 1971 Illustr. Weekly India 11 Apr. 55/1 Following Mohammed Ghori's establishment in Delhi, we had several dynasties of Muslim rulers like the so-called Slave Kings. |
| 1859 Darwin Orig. Species vii. (1860) 223 Ants which are not *slave-makers. 1915 H. St. J. K. Donisthorpe Brit. Ants 282 Formica sanguinea, the blood-red Robber Ant, our only slave⁓maker, is one of the most interesting species, showing great intelligence in adapting its habits to varying circumstances. 1978 Nature 16 Mar. 209/1 Wilson surveys a range of behaviour including that of ‘slavemaker’ ants who have become dependent on workers of other species. |
| 1835 W. E. Channing Slavery iv. 87 *Slave-markets..turn to mockery the language of freedom in the halls of Congress. 1838 Stephens Trav. Turkey 52/1 In the slave-market..it required no great effort of the imagination to make her decidedly beautiful. 1871 Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) IV. 92 Since Gregory had beheld the angelic children of Deira in the Roman slave-market. 1911 G. B. Shaw Getting Married Pref. 179 We are in the slave⁓market, where the conception of our relations to the persons sold is..simply commercial. 1931 ‘D. Stiff’ Milk & Honey Route 214 Slave market, that part of the main stem where jobs are sold. 1960 Voice of Idle Worker (Vancouver) 8 Feb. 2/2 The chances are that he will be a regular customer at the slave market for a few months. |
| 1907 H. Zimmern tr. Nietzsche's Beyond Good & Evil ix. 227 In a tour through the many finer and coarser moralities which have hitherto prevailed or still prevail on the earth, I found certain traits recurring regularly together and connected with one another, until finally two primary types revealed themselves to me, and a radical distinction was brought to light. There is master-morality and *slave-morality. 1907 G. B. Shaw Major Barbara Pref. 153 Nietzsche..regarded the slave-morality as having been..imposed on the world by slaves making a virtue of necessity and a religion of their servitude. Mr Stuart-Glennie regards the slave-morality as an invention of the superior white race to subjugate the minds of the inferior races whom they wished to exploit. 1960 J. O. Urmson Conc. Encycl. Western Philos. 282/2 It deals at length with slave morality which contrasts good and evil. |
| 1859 Bartlett Dict. Amer. 413 *Slave power, the political power of slaveholders; the body of slaveholders. 1861 Gen. P. Thompson Audi Alt. III. clxxvii. 214 The martyrdoms a victorious Slave-power may in its tenderness impose. |
| 1812 Brackenridge Views Louisiana (1814) 94 Buffaloe robes..will be found of much use in the *slave states, as a cheap and comfortable bedding for negroes. 1888 Bryce American Commw. iii. liii. II. 334 New States had been admitted substantially in pairs, a slave State balancing a free State. |
| 1899 Werner Capt. Locusts 244 Once before I saw him there with people tied in *slave-sticks. |
| 1946 Ann. Reg. 1945 185 The all-overshadowing event after the collapse of Nazi Germany was the liberation of the concentration camps and the huge army of foreign *slave-workers in Germany. 1956 I. Serraillier Silver Sword vii. 47 Everyone over twelve had to register, and he would almost certainly have been carried off to Germany as a slave worker. 1971 P. D. James Shroud for Nightingale viii. 264 [They] were Jewish slave workers in Germany..they were given lethal injections. |
▸ A person who plays the submissive role in sadomasochistic sexual activity.
Cf. master n.1 2d,
mistress n. 2g.
| 1901 Suburban Souls I. iv. 81 My best beloved master, Do come tomorrow... Try to stay as late as possible if you wish to please your slave and make her very happy. 1907 J. P. Kirkwood Sadopaideia I. 52 The fascination of domination held me, and though..I had both Muriel and Juliette as my mistresses, that was more for their pleasure than my own. For myself I was their master, they were my slaves. 1921 F. Savage tr. L. von Sacher-Masoch Venus in Furs 73 ‘You have awakened my dearest dream... To be the slave of a woman, a beautiful woman, whom I love, whom I worship.’ ‘And who on that account maltreats you.’ 1980E. White in L. Michaels & C. B. Ricks State of Lang. 244 The way to ask someone to be your slave..is ‘are you into a bottom scene?’ 1995 Independent 22 Mar. 23/3 It is hard to imagine him as a stereotypical leather-clad, whip-wielding ‘master’ disciplining his ‘slave’. |
▪ II. slave, v.1 (
sleɪv)
Also 6–7
slaue.
[f. slave n.1 Cf. enslave v.; also (M)Du. and (M)LG. slaven, G. sklaven, chiefly in sense 4.] 1. trans. To reduce to the condition of a slave; to enslave; to bring into subjection.
| 1602 Marston Antonio's Rev. ii. ii, Thou canst not slave Or banish me. 1644 J. Berkenhead Serm. 21 Princes protect us from evill doers, who would..mercilesly slave our children. 1691 J. Wilson Belphegor ii. i, I lend a Hand to Slave my Country!—No. 1881 A. R. Ellis Sylvestra II. 60 Why did he go on board a Bristol ship, if not for slaving men? |
| fig. 1605 Shakes. Lear iv. i. 71 Let the..Lust-dieted man, That slaues your ordinance,..feele your powre quickly. 1639 G. Daniel Ecclus. xlviii. 30 Who could never stoope To slave his vertue, for a servile Hope. |
b. Const.
to (a person, etc.).
| 1559 J. Aylmer Harborowe L iij b, Subiected and slaued to the proudest..nacion. 1608 Machin Dumb Kt. i. i, My recreant soule, Slaved to her beauty, would renounce all warre. 1652 C. B. Stapylton Herodian 76 It slav'd them unto Macedon and Rome. 1850 Blackie æschylus II. 39, I first slaved to the yoke Both ox and ass. |
| refl. c 1613 Rowlands Paire of Spy-Knaves (Hunterian Cl.) 3 A Sicophant, that slaues himselfe to all. 1620 E. Blount Horæ Subs. 439 If they hope to obtaine any thing by their fauour..they must..slaue them-selues to Flatterie. |
c. Croquet. (See
quot.)
| 1868 Whitmore Croquet Tactics 21 To ‘slave’..a ball is to take it on with you in the game. |
d. techn. To subject (a device) to control or regulation by another device. Const.
to the device.
| 1952 [see manipulator 2 f]. 1958 C. C. Adams Space Flight v. 132 The camera is synchronized with the National Bureau of Standards radio transmitter WWV, whose chief function is to broadcast time signals of incredible accuracy... It does this by means of a crystal clock..which is ‘slaved’ to WWV. 1978 Broadcast 21 Aug. 5/3 (Advt.), Picture stabilization provided by an oscillating mirror slaved to the film perforations. |
2. To treat as a slave; to employ in hard or servile labour.
| 1699 M. Lister Journ. Paris 218 The ægyptian Kings built them Monuments, wherein they slaved their whole Nation. 1737 Bracken Farriery Impr. (1756) I. 179 Brought on..by hard Riding and Slaving the Horse afterwards. 1820 Scott Monast. xxxvi, A man were better dead than thus slaved and harassed. 1925 E. O'Neill Compl. Wks. II. 154 Didn't he slave Maw t' death? |
b. To abuse by the name of slave.
| 1719 London & Wise Compl. Gard. p. iii, The Nursery man is presently slaved and condemned for a cheating Knave. |
3. intr. (with
it).
a. To practise slavish imitation.
b. = next.
| 1589 Nashe Anat. Absurd. E ij, Some proude spirited princocks..gets him a liuerie Coate of their cloth, and slaues it in their seruile sutes. 1852 Thackeray Esmond ii. vii, He found himself presently..slaving it like the rest of the family. |
4. To toil or work hard like a slave.
| 1719 D'Urfey Pills (1872) V. 77 There's many more who slave and toil, Their living to get. 1766 Anstey New Bath Guide viii. 80 She slav'd all the Day like a Spitalfields Weaver. 1806 Beresford Miseries Hum. Life ii. x, Slaving to drag up each separately out of its deep bed. 1848 Dickens Dombey xi, Poor Berry drudged and slaved away as usual. 1870 Lowell Among my Bks. Ser. i. (1873) 55 While he was still slaving at these bricks without straw. |
b. To plod
through something in reading.
| 1806 Beresford Miseries Hum. Life viii. xvi, Reading newspaper poetry;—which..you occasionally slave through. |
c. trans. To wear
out, etc., by severe toil.
| 1864 M. E. Braddon Doctor's Wife ii, I may slave my life out, and there isn't one of you will..help me. 1880 ― Just as I am xlix, You will slave yourself to death. 1891 Harper's Mag. July 184/1 What a hideous place was Pentonville to slave away one's life in. |
5. intr. To traffic in slaves.
rare—1.
| 1726 G. Roberts Four Yrs. Voy. 1, I made a contract..to buy a Cargo to slave with on the Coast of Guinea. |
▪ III. † slave, v.2 Obs. rare.
[Related to sleave v. or slive v.] intr. To tear away or split.
| 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §127 Cutte the settes..a lyttel from the erth, the more halfe a-sonder, and to lette it slaue downewarde, and not vpwarde. Ibid. §133 That causeth the bowes to slaue downe the nether parte. |